So we made it! We did! It's the start of the trail. What do you think? You ready?
Ready to hike 273 miles to Canada? I have no idea.
When I was 19, I hiked 600 miles of the Appalachian Trail. I hiked from Mount Greylock in Massachusetts to the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail at Mount Katahdin in Maine.
That trip changed my perspective a lot. It made me really think of the forest as my home.
Whenever I return to the woods or natural areas in general, I still have that feeling like I'm returning back to home.
The long trail is America's oldest long distance hiking trail. In 1910, a man named James P. Taylor brought together a group of Vermonters to create the Green Mountain Club with the idea of building a long foot path through the wilderness along the high ridge line of Vermont hitting every major peak and stretching from Massachusetts border all the way to the Canadian border.
It's a unique trail in a lot of ways because it goes straight up the mountains. It doesn't duck any challenges really and it challenges everybody who's on it.
The club really pioneered a lot of things that we take for granted in long distance hiking now. The white blaze, the shelter system where you can hike within a reasonable days hike from shelter to shelter all the way through the long trail.
And every shelter is unique and different and amazing.
Oh man, that last mile seemed like a really long time. Yeah, I know. How long are you guys out for? We're doing our whole long trail.
When we would get into a shelter or a campsite, we were often ravenous. So the first thing we would do is put together our meal.
The food on this trip has been stellar as I dehydrated lots of food and Matthew mixes together concoctions that are amazing.
We woke up to sun. We hiked into snow that was covered with bright green leaves. Really beautiful, yet slushy and cold. Again today we mostly hike through mud and streams but it is easier to do this on a sunny day.
During the day we hiked, we hiked, we hiked, we ate, we hiked. So it was a matter of walking, eating, walking, eating, walking, eating, more walking.
Day three, we got an early start. Starting to have trouble with blisters on the bottom of my feet and toes. Tomorrow could be challenging.
It's difficult to find the time to set aside to do a trip of that length. For a lot of people I think it takes a major life event to inspire a trip like that.
You stop taking things for granted. Simple things, you know, like your bed or like your stove.
There's something very satisfying to know that you're capable of surviving the elements. Like when it starts to rain or pour, when it's cold.
Day thirteen, wow, it's raining, cold and windy. We made good time and it was beautiful. After a while however we started to get cold.
I never stopped, just hike on. Stopping to pee was sure to bring on shivers. We got to the shelter and had sandwiches and hot drink and fell asleep.
When did I get out of the hike? I hate questions like this.
I don't know. It taught me how to deal with myself better. After your father dying, that was a good thing. I needed that.
And it helped me deal with that, you know. Those are the two big things.
It was dad's death that did inspire the trip for us and I think we were both in a situation where we didn't know how to get to that next stage of our lives.
And I think this trip allowed us to do that.
I mean what do you think he would have thought about this little adventure of ours?
I think he would on one hand think we were crazy and on the other hand be a little inspired.
We climbed high to a rocky knob and realized we hadn't even started the hard part. We kept going. It was totally doable but very steep.
When we got to the top we had an amazing 360 degree view. It was very cold and windy however so we did not stay long.
We had wanted to have lunch there but there was no way lunch would have blown right off the mountain.
The conservation of the upper ridge line of the state of Amont is amazing and has a lot of benefits to the overall environment here.
Amont Mountains get more rugged as you go more north and I think that plays out in the long trail.
We're happy that we get complaints from people who just say that it's too rugged and isn't maintained enough.
Well originally the long trail was just handshake agreements. There was no sort of long term protection conservation effort.
It wasn't really until the 80s when the long trail was essentially kicked off of a mountain that we started realizing we wanted to have more permanency.
We started putting together the long trail protection program in the mid 80s and now we've conserved 25,000 acres.
Of the entire long trail there's about 6 miles that is unconserved out of 273.
Day 24. We got up early and had breakfast.
Meanwhile last night I forgot to mention that we met a hiker named Gouda, his trail name.
We hiked all morning and stopped for a while by a shelter. Gouda had caught up with us so he had lunch with us.
Afterwards we hiked through Devil's Gulch.
There in front of us was a moose skeleton.
Day 25.
Yeah what happens is they basically, they can't handle this kind of terrain.
They got them lanky legs and one wrong step.
Well I'm trying to get to this.
Exactly. It probably came the same way we came and then.
Yeah.
I hope she lived a good life.
When my foot hit that mud I just started sliding down.
It would have actually been a really fun ride except there was some kind of a little knob or rock or something on the way down.
It twisted my ankle which in turn twisted my knee.
It's not swollen at all?
I think it is a little swollen.
When I looked at the other knee the other knee didn't have this.
What has put a temporary halt to our trip here?
A mud slide and a wrenched knee.
We have two days.
Well we could do it in one day but we're going to take two.
Take our time.
Go to Canada.
How long has it been since we were back in the spot?
Four months.
On to Canada?
On to Canada.
Cool.
Very cool.
I can't believe we did it.
Wow.
Awesome.
Norther in Terminus.
Yeah.
Great.
I would have to say though that I did not expect to have the feeling when we came back to the trail.
It's like coming back to home.
And I didn't expect that.
Very nice.
You know the other thing that teaches you is what you can accomplish when you're tired, cold, in pain.
And you just keep going.
Alright, thanks long trail.
I think these are mine.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Thank you.
